Geri Halliwell makes a big impression
This week saw the return of the guest judge everyone was looking forward to moaning about, and boy did Geri Halliwell deliver tonight. When the Spice Girl last took to the judging panel two years ago, the ongoing joke was that she failed to stop talking. This time around, Geri talked less but when she did, managed to say all the wrong things. It seems that Geri's Achilles heel was flattery- no matter how bad an act was; if they sang a Spice Girls song or told Geri how much they loved her, being able to sing suddenly wasn't high up on the agenda for Old Ginger.
Another odd story arc was the faux 90's bands rivalry between Geri and Gary Barlow. Her onslaught of insults that she threw at Gary- including that two members of Take That couldn't sing and that she had sold more records than him- seemed a little forced. Unfortunately for Geri- who was clearly gunning for a permanent position- the producers of the show were having a laugh at her expense. From the tumbleweed editing of her outlandish megaphone shouting arrival, to the judges making sly digs about her behind her back- it was clear that Geri was never going to be taken seriously. Even Mel B stuck the knife in when she returned to the panel for the fourth week running- what happened to girl power eh?
Melanie McCabe returns and Tulisha meets her biggest fan
Yes, the inevitable returning contestant story was back this week in the form of Irish singer Melanie McCabe. The great irony of Melanie having to retell a story that happened only a year ago was that even though she clearly had a strong voice, she had been completely sidelined due to her lack of (you guessed it) story. Now armed with one of rejection, Melanie wowed the judges with a rendition of 'Bridge over troubled Water'.
Another contestant of note was Jason who was a self confessed Tulisa fanatic. Unfortunately for Jason, he couldn't quite get to grips with the singer's name, pronouncing it 'Tulisha'. Even though his performance was better than expected this was irrelevant. The long running joke that the poor guy is unable to pronounce Tulisa's name means that he will probably go far in the competition. That is until the joke runs out of steam and Tulisha unceremoniously leaves him behind, never to look back again.
Nervous Christopher
The final singer of the night was 34-year-old Christopher from Liverpool who suffered from a rather bad case of nerves. Before Christopher took to the stage, producers set the scene by running a montage of nervous singers failing to cut the mustard with the judges. It was fair to assume that Christopher was likely to be amazing, comparatively speaking at least. Supported by his Nanny Pat (no not that one) backstage, Christopher battled his nerves to tell the judges he would be singing 'The Rose' - a song that was special to him as it had been played at his Grandad's funeral. Needless to say, it would have been more shocking if his performance had been downright terrible. Alas, it was not. But hey, that's why we love The X Factor.